Hidden Histories, Historical Marker Resource
Sapelo Island
This Hidden History was created by SCAD student Nzingha Helwig as part of her SCAD art history department coursework, with guidance from art history professor Holly Goldstein, Ph.D., in 2021.
The Sapelo Island historical marker was dedicated in 2003. View the Sapelo Island historical marker listing.
Gallery
1. Sapelo Island Shell Ring. Image courtesy of Benjamin Galland.
2. Map of South Carolina and Georgia, 1757. Image courtesy of Thomas Jeffrys.
3. Sapelo North End Plantation. Image courtesy of Benjamin Galland.
4. Woman and Child in Sapelo Rice Fields, 1867-99. Image courtesy of JSTOR.
5. Elizabeth Basket-Weaving, 2010. Image courtesy of Liz West.
6. Yoruba Indigo Resist-Dyed Adire Cloth from Nigeria. Image courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
7. Asante Silk Kente Cloth from Ghana. Image courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
8. Utilitarian Quilt Made by Enslaved Woman, Nancy Vaughn Ford. Image courtesy of Rawick, vol. 8 of American Slave.
9. Utilitarian Quilt Made by Enslaved Woman Nancy Vaughn Ford. Image courtesy of Stavinsky and the McIntosh Family.
10. “Quilts in the Wind,” Jonathan Green, 2007. Image courtesy of Jonathan Green Studios.
11. Sea Island Brochure, 1920's. Image courtesy of The Author's Collection.
12. Cornelia Walker Bailey on Hog Hammock, 2015. Image courtesy of Imke Lass.
13. Sapelo Island Historical Marker Near the Meridian Dock, 2014. Image courtesy of Dylan Wilson.
14-19. Quilted Cotton and Indigo Basket, 2021. Image courtesy of Nzingha Helwig.
As both a fiber artist and an individual with familial roots in the Gullah Geechee community, this was a topic I felt immensely connected to. I find art to be one of the most exciting ways history is told, so to learn more about the legacy of these techniques, and the ways they are still championed by the community on Sapelo Island, was incredibly fascinating. Researching this topic reinforced my love of tactile storytelling, showed me the many ways Gullah Geechee people honor their West African ancestry, and imbued in me the importance of hand-craft and finding beauty in necessity and circumstance.
My piece aims to stitch together and celebrate the various artforms Gullah Geechee people create, all of which connect them with their West African heritage. Using traditional basket-weaving techniques, combined with strip-weave quilting methods, I crafted a cotton basket dyed with indigo. This process consisted of hand-wrapping torn strips of cotton muslin around braided cotton cord, coiling the lengths and sewing them in place, and then dip dyeing the finished basket in indigo. In addition to utilizing traditional techniques, I also wanted to honor the materials—namely cotton and indigo—that relied on the labor and lives of enslaved individuals.
Bailey, Cornelia Walker, and Christena Bledsoe. God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island. New York, NY: Doubleday, 2000.
Cooper, Melissa L. “They Made Gullah: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia's Gullah Community, 1915-1991,” 2012.
Fry, Gladys-Marie. Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Ante-Bellum South. New York: Dutton Studio Books, 1990.
Genzlinger, Neil. “Cornelia Bailey, Champion of African-Rooted Culture in Coastal Georgia, Dies at 72.” The New York Times. The New York Times, October 18, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/obituaries/cornelia-bailey-champion-of-african-rooted-culture-in-coastal-georgia-dies-at-72.html.
“Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.” Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Accessed May 19, 2021. https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/about/.
Lockhart, Cynthia. The Legacy of African American Textile Art, 2020. https://youtu.be/EMTVIfvlerA.
Smith, Amber. “Nonprofit Works to Help Black Landowners Reclaim Black Land—Starting with Sapelo Island.” Savannah Morning News: Local News, Politics & Sports in Savannah, GA. Savannah Morning News, February 10, 2021. https://www.savannahnow.com/in-depth/special/2021/02/09/nonprofit-works-help-black-landowners-and-reclaim-black-land-starting-sapelo-island/3948121001/.
Spring, Christopher. The Treasury of Decorative Art: African Textiles. London, UK: Studio, 1997.
Sullivan, Buddy. “Sapelo Island Land Settlement and Land Ownership: A Historical Overview.” Occasional Papers of the Sapelo Island NERR, 2013. http://sapelonerr.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Land-Owership-Paper2.pdf.
Sullivan, Buddy. “Sapelo Island.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, December 2, 2019. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/sapelo-island
Sumpter, Althea. “Geechee and Gullah Culture.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, September 16, 2020. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/geechee-and-gullah-culture.